2007truthmovementpoll

In the Fall of 2007, a poll about 9/11 activism was sent by a 9/11 truth movement member to other members, apparently as part of a school project. I had seen the poll questions posted on 911blogger, but had forgotten about it until yesterday, when I received this email from a fan:

Congratulations, Asshole!

72. Please rank these "debunkers" according to how effective their opposition to the TM has been, most effective to least

Despite my request that my correspondent forward all the results, that's the only one he or she sent. However, today I received the whole shebang from an ex-truther who had seen me post about this on the JREF forum. I'm very surprised to see how many responses were received, particularly for such a long poll sent to people who tend to be very protective of their personal information.

It's quite sad to see that the truther who sent the poll received death threats from other truthers for doing so. That movement has attracted more than its share of loons who harbor violent fantasies.

The poll has 80 questions, although apparently the write-in answers weren't included in the results. I've divided the questions among three pages (this website software hates long lists), according to the division headings in the poll:

I've bolded some of the responses that I think are particularly interesting.

Hello, everyone. You probably thought I forgot about you! I expected to have the results of this survey back to you in November, but I was swamped with completed surveys, three times more than I estimated would get. I don't know what the total return rate was, because almost 40% of the surveys I got came from people who had recieved them by forwarded emails from others, and I don't know how many of those forwarded emails there were. Anyway, thank you all for participating!

I was originally going to send the results only to the people who had completed surveys, but I think the results are interesting enough to share with everyone.

I need to say something before getting to the results. I recieved two death threats after I sent out this survey. One of them was just stupid, but the other one was very specific. That's very disturbing, because only a few people in the Truth Movement knew that I was doing this. I had to get the police involved, my parents had to get the police involved, and as it turns out it looks like it's a good thing we did. This is ongoing with the police and courts now, and it has been a huge disruption to my life. We're not talking kooky here, we're talking dangerous.

I think we all know that there are some paranoid and unstable people in the Truth Movement. Well, at least I definitely know that. Let's do what we can to distance ourselves from them, or encourage them to get help, okay? I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I did. I was going to tell you my name when I sent the results out, but I hope you'll understand why I don't want to share that now.

As for your privacy issues, I will be deleting all of your email addresses and individual survey results at the end of this month.

8. Where do you use the internet the most? Please rank most to least.1) School 9%2) Work 27%3) Home 64%4) Other:

9. Your internet connection is:1) Broadband 93%2) Dial-up 7%3) Other:

10. About how many hours a day are you actively using the internet?1) Less than 1 2%2) 1-2 hours 8%3) 2-3 hours 18%4) 3-4 hours 29%5) 4-5 hours 23%6) 5-6 hours 13%7) More than 6 hours 7%

11. What do you spend the most time doing on the internet? Please rank most to least1) School work 16%2) Job stuff 32%3) Personal Use and General Browsing 29%4) 9/11 Research 12%5) Gaming 9%6) Other: 2%

12. What social networking sites do you have an account at?1) MySpace 73% (of the people who answered. Total is over 100%)2) Facebook 10%3) Bebo 3%4) Meetup.com 9%5) Friendster 4%6) Tribe 2%7) Other:

13. Do you have a blog?1) Yes 9%2) No 91%

14. If yes to above, how often do you post?1) Daily 22%2) Weekly 57%3) Monthly 21%

15. Aside from blogs, do you have your own website?1) No 92%2) Yes, I have a site on a free web host 3%3) Yes, I have a site on a pay web host 3%4) Yes, I host a site(s) on my own server 2%